From Fin24
Cape Town – The Johannesburg Stock Exchange agreed to a request by Gupta-owned Oakbay Energy and Resources for a voluntary suspension of the listing of its securities, it announced on Friday.
The news followed a warning by the JSE that it was considering suspending the company. This related to it not having an audit committee chairperson, sponsor or transfer secretary, which the stock exchange requires for a company to trade.
Shares in Oakbay, with a market cap of R4.64bn, closed the day to trade at R5.80.
“[T]he JSE has granted a request made by Oakbay Resources for a voluntary suspension of the listing of its securities, on a temporary basis; which will take place with immediate effect”, Oakbay announced on the stock exchanges news service (SENS).
It cited the recent resignations of the company’s sponsor, transfer secretary and an independent non-executive director (who was also the chairperson of the Company’s Audit Committee) as having created significant uncertainty around the ability of the firm to continue to meet its future obligations in terms of the Listings Requirements.
“As a direct consequence of these circumstances, the Board believes that it would be in the best interests of the Company and its Shareholders that the listing of its securities on the JSE is temporarily suspended.”
The company said the board of directors is in the process of evaluating several alternatives available to the company.
Oakbay Resources is facing mounting challenges as media houses publish daily exposĂ©s from the #GuptaLeaks, a database of between 100 000 and 200 000 emails that reveal behind-the-scenes communications of the Guptas’ many enterprises.
The family and their companies are the focus of intense scrutiny after allegations of state capture linking them to President Jacob Zuma, his son Duduzane and his political allies.
ORL (Oakbay) has been suspended on the #JSE at their request pic.twitter.com/9sAKXfmURa
— Simon Brown (@SimonPB) June 23, 2017
This year Oakbay reported an operating loss of R1.279bn for the year to end-February 2017, from a prior loss of R1.5m. The firm’s cash on hand dwindled from R225m in 2016 to R2.7m in 2017.
The JSE is investigating Oakbay share trades after cancelling suspicious trades in the company’s shares on March 31 2017, the morning after Pravin Gordhan was removed as finance minister.
Source:Â http://www.fin24.com/Companies/Mining/jse-suspends-listing-of-oakbay-resources-20170623
